Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new Top Ten book related list. Check 'em out to play along.
Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2013
- Read more books and stop wasting so much reading time fiddling around on the internet. Yeah, wish me luck on that.
- Read more books in genres I currently love (mainly horror and m/m).
- Stop forcing myself to read books that aren't my thing just to thin out the tbr pile or fulfill a review commitment. This makes me hate reading sometimes.
- Review more books. 2012 was a weird year reading-wise. I continually found myself distracted and put off reading in favor of doing anything else. I watched three seasons of Dexter, Breaking Bad and finished knitting a rather larger blanket. All when I could have been reading. The culprit? See #3.
- Listen to more audiobooks and take notes so that I can actually review them. My memory is non-existent and when I'm too lazy to take notes (which is most of the time) I end with a review that looks something like this: "Don't ask me the character names, I can't remember. This book was good because . . . well, I didn't fall asleep." No lie. I can't tell you how many pending reviews I've trashed because I couldn't recall a damn thing.
- Catch up on the backlists of some of my favorite authors specifically Amy Lane, Courtney Milan and P.L.Nunn.
- Simplify my life by donating, giving away or bookcrossing most of my tbr pile. I will never read them all even if I make it to 110, retain eyesight and my sanity (though I think its too late for that one). Some of them have been in bins since the early 90's. Once I catch up on review commitments I plan to resume my TBR Giveaway which I slacked on during my hiatus/burnout.
- Organize my collection by genre and alphabetize by author and put them all on bookshelves so I can weed through them easily. My husband did this for me once and I screwed it all up with new additions after a few months. He refuses to do it again. Can't say that I blame him. The task haunts and overwhelms me. Now most of the overflow sits in three embarrassingly extra large bins that are too easy to ignore. There are some gems hidden in there, I'm sure of it, but I don't see them so I don't read them. Why then, do I bother keep them?
- STOP collecting the freebies. It takes too much time to find one I'll love (sometimes you do get what you pay for) and sorting through the unappealing stuff sucks up way too much of my day.Not to mention downloading and converting them so I can read them (ahhh . . . someday) on my e-reader.
- Buy and read more ebooks by unknown authors. I love finding gems like P.L. Nunn's Bloodraven, Abigail Rioux Gravedigger's Brawl and Joseph Garraty's Voice.
These goals are pretty easy to meet if I check in with myself monthly and stay on track. I won't commit to reading so and so many books in 2013 because I know I'll only be setting myself up to fail (the pressure, it kills) which is why I am going to stay far, far away from the yearly challenges.
What about the rest of you? Anything you want to change up in 2013?
ahhhhh point number one = me right now :D
ReplyDeletei really should spend way less time on my ipod touch/laptop but especially with the ipod it is so easy to just "check something quickly" which ends up taking hours...
i hope i never get too many books i know i won't ever be able to read - that would be really frustrating :D right now i have 48 unread books at home which seems quite a good number as that's something i can easily manage in a year...but oh all the new releases and stuf *.* so hard to be a bookish person sometimes :D
48? I can't remember a time when I only had 48! It's nice to have my own personal library but it is overwhelming me. The problem started when I was working next door to a used book store where I would spend every lunch hour (and a good chunk of my paycheck). Then a few years back a family member downsized and gave me 4 huge bins of books which I mostly traded in at paperbackswap for credits and over the years I've been collecting my wishlist books but it has reached the point of ridiculousness and I need to get rid of a bunch.
DeleteI thought about adding #1 to my own list, but then I would have broken it already. Have a great new year!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've blown it already too but tomorrow is a new day, right?
DeleteDistractions? Like buying Jason every James Bond movie ever made on Blu-ray? Like our marathon of Borderlands 2 or replaying Skyrim after watching and reading Game of Thrones?
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was a fun year but not so much reading.
I am so relieved it's not just me with this distraction issue. I forgot about Game of Thrones (and American Horror Story for that matter). It's no wonder I only finished 52 books last year.
DeleteHey, there's nothing wrong with wasting time watching Dexter:) I tried to catalog my library once and gave up (but I have over 3,000 books, so I was overwhelmed). Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHere's my Top Ten.
I love Dexter and Walking Dead and too many shows to count and my book count last year proves it. It is hard to tear myself away though. 3,000? That is a lot of sorting :) I'm afraid to count mine but I'm sure it numbers over 1000. I have two floor to ceiling bookshelves double stacked and two full bins of books I "want" to read or wanted to read at some point.
DeleteI'm doing the whole internet time suck right now...I keep telling myself it's just a few more minutes...right. Thanks for stopping by my TTT!
ReplyDeleteJulie~ My TTT at New Adult Addiction
Yeah, I kid myself that way. I'm just going to look up one thing and before I know it 2 hrs have gone by.
DeleteI'm trying to cut back on the internet a ton this year. I just get nothing accomplished when I spend so much time on here! I do my best to just unplug completely by 7, but I'm also taking online class so we'll see how long this lasts! Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteI wish you luck with it. I'm struggling already. The internet is horribly addicting.
DeleteI would love to really organize my bookshelves. They used to be, but I've added so many books and another bookshelf that they're all just jumbled up now. Good luck on all of your goals :)
ReplyDeleteHere's my Top Ten!
Thanks, it was so nice having an organized tbr bookshelf for a short while there. I really just need to dig in and get it done one of these weekends.
DeleteI've never heard of bookcrossing, but it seems similar to PaperBackSwap -- it's definitely nice to pass on books you're done with. They get a good home, and there's more room on your shelf for new books!
ReplyDeleteOoh, you're an alphabetical organizer! It's always fun to see how many different ways bookish people structure their collections. I've previously been a big fan of sorting by topic, but alphabetical may be a good way to go next time I reorganize.
Good luck with your goals! Here's my TTT for the week. Would love for you to stop by!
Bookcrossing is a fun way to "set free" books I don't want and aren't requested by paperbackswap members. You basically leave it somewhere, a cafe or bench, with a tracking # inside the book so the "finder" can log it found. I don't get a lot of actually "catches" because I think people think it might be a scam or something but every now and then I get a lovely message that makes it all worthwhile.
DeleteI used to be really nutty about organizing my books by genre, then author, then title and I could always find them. I wish I hadn't become such a messy slug about it!